Revealed: The best and worst jobs of 2013 – and it’s bad news for our reporters

Reporters interview footballer John Terry – but the role of a newspaper reporter has been voted the worst in 2013 (Picture: Ian Walton/Getty)

If you’re reading this while fed up at work, remember it could always be worse – you could be a newspaper reporter.

Yes, the role of reporting the goings-on of the world has been voted the worst job of 2013 – just below being a lumberjack and an enlisted rank in the military.

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones and work with numbers as an actuary or a financial planner – which both came in the top five best jobs in the list by CareerCast.com.

Dental hygienists and physical therapists both also rate highly, while flight attendants and oil rig workers may agree or disagree with their lowly placings in the list.

Jean-Claude Van Damme attends a film premiere… but for many actors the job is high-risk and not very well paid, according to research (Picture: Eduardo Parra/Getty)

Acting may seem glamorous but it is obviously not all red carpets and Oscar awards as the job of a thespian comes in at a lowly 197 out of 200.

The jobs were ranked on five criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, stress, and hiring outlook.

Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com, explained one of the reasons why actuaries – who put a financial value on risk – scored so highly.

‘There’s a severe shortage of actuaries,’ he said, adding that wages were increasing as a result.

As for the lowly newspaper reporter, he told the Wall Street Journal: ‘It’s been low for a while.

‘What probably pushed it to the bottom is that several things got worse – job prospects decreased, the average salary continued to fall, and work hours continued to rise. Those factors also make the job more stressful.’

You’re in luck if you’re good with numbers, with an actuary and financial planner both scoring highly in the list of best and worst jobs (Picture: AFP/Getty)

It’s not all bad though. Rocco LaDuca, who covers crime and courts at the Observer-Dispatch in New York, said: ‘I’m not sure I’d be happy in another setting. I can’t think of any job that would be as exciting or as fulfilling as this.